Pesach #63

Pesach is the Hebrew name for the Passover. It refers to the sacrificial lamb, the meal eaten in the night of the exodus, and the annual festival that recalls it. The name is tied to a verb, pasach, which the story uses for the LORD’s action toward the houses marked with blood, and English “Passover” reflects the traditional understanding of that verb as “pass over.”

Biblical Usage

Exodus 12 gives instructions for the first Pesach. Each family is to take a lamb, and the meal is to be eaten in haste, with loins girded, shoes on, and staff in hand: “it is the LORD’s passover” (Exodus 12:11). Moses tells the elders to kill the lamb and to strike the lintel and doorposts with its blood, so that the LORD, seeing the blood, will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to enter (Exodus 12:21-23). The people are told to teach their children what the service means (Exodus 12:26-27), and the day is to be kept as a memorial (Exodus 12:14).

Later books show it observed at set times. Deuteronomy 16:1-2 requires it at the place the LORD chooses, and it is revived under kings such as Hezekiah, who invites the whole of Israel and Judah to keep the Passover at Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 30:1), and under Josiah, of whom it is said that no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges (2 Kings 23:21-23). In the Gospels, Jesus eats a Passover meal with his disciples, saying that he has desired to do so before he suffers (Luke 22:15).

Theological Significance

The meaning of the verb pasach is debated. Most readings take it to mean “pass over,” but Isaiah 31:5 uses it in a context that suggests “protect” or “hover over,” and some scholars argue that this is the primary sense. The Passover became the model of redemption in later Jewish thought. Paul calls Christ “our passover” who is sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7), and Christian tradition has linked the Lord’s Supper and the crucifixion to this background. Traditions differ on whether the Last Supper was itself a Passover meal, since John’s Gospel dates the crucifixion to the day the lambs were killed.